How do I achieve more control over Fairy Wing Meshes?
Mesh Deform Modifier is Well Suited to the Task

A simple armature controls a simple box cage mesh. The cage mesh controls the final wing shape.

I will write more. But we hope to give you immediate tools for your work.






Bind Simple and Near vertices. Depicted in the image above. Then enlarge the shape with extrusion/scaling in [edit mode].  Click and Zoom to see larger image.  Edge lines are difficult to see in a small image.


simple to model  
simple to armature weight

The cage is different than the wings.  The simple
cage can control your wings.  This cage is easy to roll/spiral and thus
rolls the wing through the Mesh Deform Modifier.





The image above show the lousy wing inside the cage. I am sure your wing will be very artistic. The mesh deform modifier is displayed on right.  
This is a quick mock up slightly tailored to your question.  Please excuse the simplicity.  Note the vertex density of the cage and wing must be adequate and appropriate for your goals.  This is echoed in the video link below.  Please inspect and improve the process for your goals.




Lets pretend the image above was newly created as fairy wings for your question and not just another modifier.

On a humorous note or not.

Moonboots wrote an answer to your question 3 or so hours after my answer.  A short excerpt is reproduced here.



I wish I were flattered. 

It is interesting to note the graduated weight similar to proportional editing with smooth falloff in the last picture of his answer.  The mesh is deformed/beformed with greater intensity near the bone itself. The difference is subtle.  This may or not be of interest to the OP.

The technique in this answer it to avoid such smooth falloff.

From the famous video website is  a tutorial!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2CqQUXraeY

The topic is Mesh Deform modifier. ... To save us both time.

From the minimal documentation.

https://docs.blender.org/manual/en/dev/modeling/modifiers/deform/mesh_deform.html




The image above shows the desired weights for one bone. No manual weight painting.  Extrusion preserves the previous weights.
The circular ring mesh is displayed below.  We display folding rather than rolling. Replace the example mesh with your Wing mesh.  This is not a tutorial on Mesh Deform Modifier.  This proposed answer has the goal to give you immediate steps in the right direction.  







Mesh Deform can work with the technique above







This is an example of desired weight [stripe]. Done through modifiers.  The stripe exists or is red in a small portion near the bone.  Face connectivity is [not] considered.


Another Alternative Not Recommended


Place multiple armature spines parallel to each other so that every vertex is controlled by a near by bone.  Experiment at your own risk.




Python Script Success Results

The OP can ignore this in the near future.  Some future readers might benefit.  The above material is simpler.




Stripe in XY Plane or ||. Python.
Because there is little edge alignment with X or Y axis. We think this is more difficult to manually weight paint when a large, inconvenient number of weight stripes are needed.
The large stripe is for easy visibility. Color gradient along Y axis.   Concrete Python improvements are possible.
Read Python at your own risk.  Python subject to massive cleansing and refactoring.  Minimally tested. Please inspect and improve.





A comparison of Armature Placement and Mesh Modifier.  They are similar for this simple test.  Testing remains. Arrow indicates only the Armature Modifier is active.